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Australian leadership battle

February 24, 2012

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her rival Kevin Rudd are set to face off again for the Labor Party's leadership. Rudd officially announced his bid to challenge Gillard for control of the party.

https://p.dw.com/p/149I6
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (left) Kevin Rudd
Image: picture alliance/dpa

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd announced on Friday that he would challenge incumbent Julia Gillard for the Labor Party's leadership in a ballot scheduled for Monday.

Rudd, who in a surprise move resigned his post as foreign minister while on a trip to Washington D.C. on Wednesday, said that the Labor Party under Gillard's leadership was looking at defeat in the upcoming 2013 elections.

"Rightly or wrongly, Julia has lost the trust of the Australian people, and starting on Monday, I will start restoring that trust," Rudd said. "That is why I have decided to contest the leadership of the Australian Labor Party."

The Labor Party is lagging behind the conservative opposition, with polls suggesting that Gillard's party would lose the election if it were held tomorrow.

Bad political blood

Gillard ousted Rudd in an internal party coup in 2010, barely winning elections and forming a minority government with the support of the Greens and independent lawmakers. Rudd said Gillard had betrayed him.

"I seem to remember someone putting their hand on their heart for about three months in the lead up to June 2010, saying that she would never challenge for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party," Rudd said of Gillard.

"I want to finish the job the Australian people elected me to do when the elected me to become prime minister," he said.

slk / ipj (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)